


to trust or not to trust... that isn't the question

by FeralCreed



Category: The Losers (2010)
Genre: Cougar likes shiny things, Cougar's Hat, Crack, During Canon, Gen, M/M, Missing Scene, Pre-Slash, Team Bonding, Team as Family, and some fluff, hustling technically, mini golf, straight up crack, who doesn't tbh
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-04
Updated: 2019-07-04
Packaged: 2020-06-03 19:17:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,586
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19470430
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FeralCreed/pseuds/FeralCreed
Summary: "I'm still half convinced that the "cats, not to be trusted" scene is because Cougar hustled Jensen at minigolf or something and Jensen's still salty about it because you're not supposed to be able to hustle your teammates atminigolfof all things."And so a dumb crackfic was born. Enjoy.





	to trust or not to trust... that isn't the question

There's a few days of downtime, between getting into the States and their plan coming together to “chopperjack”, as Pooch insists on calling it. It isn't very long before Jensen's nonstop chattering has all of them on edge. Roque and Aisha, in particular, are looking particularly murderous. Cougar starts to wonder just how badly things could go when Clay tells Jensen to find something to occupy them. Probably desperate to not have his tech killed while they still need him.

Jensen, for some unfathomable reason, decides that they should all go to a nearby minigolf course. None of them are able to figure out why. But at least it gets them out of the motel. And apparently Jensen is very entertained by the themes of the different golf holes and the animatronic animals. He's rambling even more but it's easier to block it all out now that they're outside. In Cougar's opinion, the place is not quite nice enough to justify the immense excitement that Jensen seems to have. 

He changes his mind a little when the selection of golf balls include ones that light up when they hit something. What can he say? He's a simple kind of guy. 

But he also isn't very entertained by minigolf. Instead he purposefully makes bad shots just to see the ball light up as it ping-pongs around the course. Naturally his teammates start giving him shit over being at the bottom of the scoreboard, but Cougar just shrugs it off with a grin. He's having fun. Isn't his fault that the rest of them have to be so damn competitive all the time. And at least he isn't the one that Roque is looking at like he wants to shove a golf club down their throat... not that Clay's likely to have the sense to let the other man win. Aisha doesn't look like she does, either, and they're the ones tied for first place. 

Ridiculous. 

“Hey, Cougs, looks like you're having a little trouble over there,” Jensen says with a smirk. He lines up a shot with far more seriousness than is warranted and gives a victorious fist pump when his ball goes into the hole. Then he smugly rests the end of the club on his shoulder as he watches the sniper line up his next shot. “I bet you two hundred bucks that you end up losing by two hundred points.” 

“You don't have two hundred dollars,” Cougar replies calmly. He taps his own golf ball with his club and watches it rattle back and forth in a corner before ending up only halfway down the green. Not the best progression but it _did_ light up with three different colours in a row. He's satisfied with that. 

And there's actually silence for a minute. Will wonders never cease? At least, until Jensen has time to dig through his wallet in search of money and wave it in Cougar's face. Well, that changes things. Never take a bet with a man who doesn't have cash in hand unless you want to be sorely disappointed. Cougar learned that early on and lately they've all been a little bit short on spending money since they were trying to make ends meet in Bolivia. It was only fifty, instead of two hundred, but that's more than nothing. 

Cougar takes the money and folds it to put in the front pocket of his vest. If any one of the Losers are willing to place a bet against him, then they deserve to lose their money. He's known as an assiduous cheat and hustler to everyone that spends more than five minutes in the Losers' company. In fact, Pooch refuses to play against him for money any more. He's a little bit proud about that... and it's a little comforting to know that at least one of the Losers has the common sense they were born with. 

Jensen is certainly not that Loser. In fact, when Cougar immediately hits his ball into the course hole with one stroke, he has a look of complete shock. Pooch is hiding his laugh behind his hand, or trying to. Clay had already moved on to the next course, having decided some time ago that he wasn't going to be held back by the rest of them messing around. Roque and Aisha have both already picked up on what's going on and aren't doing anything to try to curb their amusement. 

Not then, and not during any of the next ten holes, when Cougar finishes almost every green with a hole in one. By that time, Clay's decided that watching Jensen being hustled is far more amusing than playing himself. The other three are openly laughing at him by the time they get to the end of the course. In fact, by that time, Cougar is the only one still playing and has climbed to the top of the scoreboard. When Pooch sees that, he starts laughing hard enough that he has to lean on his golf club to stay upright. 

“But you were playing _so badly_ the first eight holes,” Jensen insists in disbelief. “How could this happen?” 

Cougar shrugs. “The ball lighting up was much more entertaining than winning.” 

“You're saying you accidentally hustled me at minigolf because you thought it was fun that the ball lit up when you hit it.” It's a statement, not a question. All of them are well aware of what's happening by now, even if it took some of them a bit longer to catch on to things. 

The slow, lazy grin that Cougar gives him is all the answer required. 

“Unbelievable!” Jensen throws his hands up in the air and does an impressive amount of swearing considering they're at a family-oriented entertainment spot. Well, none of them are very surprised at that. Except, apparently, Jensen himself. Had he really thought that a sniper was going to be bad at a sport that was all about angles and distance? Apparently. 

He gets out of his sulk by the time the rest of the Losers have settled on a place to order dinner from. In fact, by the time they get back to the motel, he's his normal chatty self again. The only real difference is that when the others settle down for a round of cards, he refuses to play with them. 

“Not wanting to risk your money twice, Jake?” Cougar asks, and there's a quick flash of a smile from underneath the rim of his hat at the dirty scowl he gets in reply. Looks as if that's a no. Probably for the best, considering that Roque is a sore loser too, especially that one time that Cougar won his favourite knife in a bet. He ended up letting Roque win it back, because he's not quite senseless enough to get the man mad at him, but it was worth it to know he'd won it, even if it wasn't fair and square. 

* * *

“Cats. Not to be trusted.” Jensen mimics a golf swing and Cougar rolls his eyes.

Is their tech still cranky about the minigolf incident? Yes, apparently so. Maybe because Cougar has been smug about it all week and the team hasn't let Jensen live it down either. Usually Jensen's a pretty smart person but every so often he gets a little bit too confident for his own good. And it's probably better if one of his teammates are the one to remind him that he's not invincible. 

He ignores the theatrics and returns to his conversation with Aisha, while Pooch works on his MacGyvering. Whether it was going to work or not was anyone's guess, but if nothing else, they'd get to see something explode. How could they not look forward to that? And when it does work, they're all smiling, because that's one step closer to them being able to go home. Cougar doesn't really have anyone to go home to, but he knows the others do, especially Pooch and Jensen. If nothing else, he wants this for them. 

“Good work, Jensen,” he says, because this whole thing only came together because their tech was able to work his magic. This kind of achievement deserves recognition. Impulse strikes him, and he picks up his hat and puts it on Jensen's head. Considering nobody has ever seen him give anyone his hat, that's no small thing. In fact, his teammates are already looking at him in puzzlement, including Jensen himself. What? He thought it was obvious. He raises an eyebrow, stares at Jensen's working-it-out face, and nearly smiles when the other man figures it out. 

He'll reclaim it at some point in the day. Likely when the sun in his eyes gets annoying and he decides Jensen doesn't need an extra line of protection beyond his sunglasses. But for now, he'll let Jensen have his moment of glory, and accept Jensen into his strictly defined personal space. Maybe later he'll even let Jensen hear some of those thousand sounds that cats are rumoured to make. Ten? That's a small number. A boring number. And Jensen has never been boring. It's only fair if Cougar shows him how much he appreciates that. 

(And if Jensen wears his hat all day, swiping it away when he reaches for it, and Cougar has to kiss him to distraction in order to steal it back? He's all right with that. And if he falls asleep with his head on Jensen's shoulder? It's just how cats show trust.)

**Author's Note:**

> I typoed 'golf' as 'gold' an embarrassing number of times while I was writing this. Also I don't strictly remember how minigolf works because I haven't been in years but I do 100% remember light up golf balls being a thing at sports stores last time I went so. How could I not write all the crack?


End file.
